Deep Thought Thursday

19 comments to Doing It Your Way

I can’t send artists and galleries letters saying how much I admire THEIR work in order to get them to notice MY work. This through the backdoor approach I find just too sleazy. If I want to let an artist know that I admire his or her work, I want it to be real and not a way to get them to promote me.

Well….interesting. I suppose that what I’ve done is actually “file” all marketing advice and attempts at some point under “DO NOT USE” in favour of “CREATE”.

My philosophy as an artist is that marketing has to be flushed right out of your head if you’re to be really true to yourself and your artistic vision for any project that you’re working on. You have to be able to completely separate your work, from the commodification of your work in order to produce a true work of art. Do it for the love and curiosity of it…never for the money!

When people find out I’m a jewelry sculptor, they usually start going on about wholesaling, trade shows, booths, etc. That’s when they’re not asking me if I sell at the Saint Germain flea market (*lolsob*). Umm, no. Galleries are in my future.

So I’ve decided that the traditional route of trade shows and art fairs isn’t for me. That means pushing through my fear of approaching gallery owners. One woman looked at me like I was $*%! on her shoe. I guess that’s bound to happen.

I don’t know where you are, Kristine, but if you’re anywhere near the SF Bay Area you should check out Velvet Da Vinci in San Francisco if you’re into off-beat, beautiful jewelry. I’ve never seen anyplace like it, and they seem very open to innovation. I guess I’m allowed to put a URL in here: http://velvetdavinci.com/.

I have a tough time with social media; Facebook, Twitter, etc. I really have no interest in that kind of on the spot dialogue and find it very hard to make myself participate. Blogging on the other hand is a much more thoughtful approach, but not as instantaneous.

check out http://kliewerstudio.com/ he sells from his own website and email newsletter successfully without any presence on social media. It does take longer, but it can be done!

I think blogs are getting to the point of being necessary for artists – especially when first starting out because search engines pick up blog content. Folks who visit the blog can then sign up for email newsletters – which are not picked up by search engines, but are just as important because they land in email inboxes and won’t get missed. Some advice says email newsletters are important, and they are, but blogs are the best way to get your words and work noticed initially.

Then Facebook and Twitter are great ways to post links to your blog. They do not link to your newsletter content.

Recently i threw all ‘shoulds’ about artist statements out the window and sat and wrote from my heart about me and how i approach my artwork. It felt very honouring to simply allow the natural expression of what that meant without getting caught in the mental process and suitable jargon which we’ve come to recognise in the art world. Now i’m super pleased with what i’ve produced and it feels very authentic and true.

In general, the biggest thing I avoid is all the social media extras. FB I do but just as much because I have a huge family and it’s been my way of staying current with them and with old friends and clients from a previous manifestation of myself.
I have enough to do.

Oh, this is a good one! I have fb’d, twittered, linkined on and off for the last year. Hate it, love it, hate it – oh, who needs it!!

But, two venues have contacted me through twitter and I’m only randomly on there. What if I was on there more often!? So, I will social network as often as I can and try not to think about the reasons it bothers me while protecting myself the best I can.

It’s often going outside of what you’re used to that can bring results, right?!

I’ve stopped worrying about marketing and selling and started focusing on connecting. Twitter, FB, LinkedIn and all these other resources/tools allow me to live and work in Iowa and connect with peers, experts, news, photos, headlines, articles from all over the world.

The tutorials, the advice, the examples, the incredible photos inspire me and I like the idea of being able to share with others who aren’t from metropolitan cities with significant art resources.